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Media Influences on Aggression (From Prevention and Control of Aggression, P 241-272, 1983, Arnold P Goldstein and Leonard Krasner, eds. - See NCJ-104683) )

NCJ Number
104689
Author(s)
G Comstock
Date Published
1983
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This paper traces the history of violence in television and film and its purported effects on human behavior and then surveys political opinion and empirical research regarding under what circumstances media violence influences behavior.
Abstract
Trends in public concern with media violence from the early 1950's through the present are reviewed. The evolution of empirical evidence on this subject is treated in seven phases: (1) the decline of the catharsis hypothesis; (2) the development of social learning, disinhibition and cue, and arousal theories to explain the effects of television and film on aggressive behavior; (3) introduction of evidence from a variety of methods; (4) increase in the ecological validity of measures; (5) maturation of the scientific literature to permit meta-analyses; (6) identification of psychological processes on which effects are contingent; and (7) inclusion of measures that represent criminal acts or harmful antisocial behavior. Qualitative tests that may be used to assess the relationship between media violence and aggression are described. The paper discusses roles that the Federal Government, the entertainment business, and the audience can play in preventing aggressive behavior attributable to media violence and concludes that a solution is left to the audience. Approximately 125 references.